As U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley for Northern California in San Francisco wrapped up a five-day evidentiary hearing Thursday on the FTC’s motion for an injunction to block Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard buy, Microsoft answered the commission’s June 12 complaint (see 2306120074) by asserting the agency was wading into unprecedented waters.
NetChoice’s complaint Thursday (docket 5:23-cv-05105) asks the U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas in Fayetteville to declare the Arkansas Social Media Safety Act unconstitutional for infringing First Amendment rights and to enjoin Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) from enforcing it when it takes effect Sept 1. But Griffin looks forward to “vigorously defending” the statute in court, he emailed Thursday through a spokesperson.
A California state court signaled it would delay enforcement of California Privacy Right Act (CPRA) regulations. The CPRA had required the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) to start enforcing regulations implementing the sequel to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) by Saturday. Connecticut and Colorado’s comprehensive privacy laws took effect that day, joining California and Virginia laws. The Delaware Senate passed a privacy bill Thursday.
Two authors’ copyrighted materials were ingested and used to train ChatGPT without their consent, alleged a class action Wednesday (4:23-cv-03223) against OpenAI in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco.
Five individual residents of Kootenai County, Idaho, plus the 250 residents belonging to the Potlatch Hill Neighborhood Group, can’t rely on the county to protect their interests in AT&T’s fight with the municipality over a disputed cell tower, said the residents’ motion to intervene Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-00124) in U.S. District Court for Idaho. AT&T’s March 29 complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief based on the county’s denial of its application for a conditional use permit to build the 150-foot lattice tower in the northwest corner of the state near the Washington border (see 2303300046).
Verizon removed to U.S. District Court for Rhode Island in Providence Wednesday a complaint filed June 12 in a state court in Washington County, alleging the carrier “harassed” pro se plaintiff Christopher Laccinole with robocalls for more than four years “for a debt he never owed.”
Defendants OpenAI and Microsoft’s “disregard for privacy laws is matched only by their disregard for the potentially catastrophic risk to humanity,” said 16 plaintiffs in a Wednesday privacy class action (docket 3:23-cv-03199) Wednesday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco (see 2306280052).
Factory Mutual Insurance refuses to honor the terms of the property insurance policy the Philadelphia Flyers bought to protect against the type of “catastrophic loss” the team incurred when its games were canceled or curtailed at the Wells Fargo Center in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, alleged team owner Comcast Spectacor in a June 8 state court complaint that Factory Mutual removed Wednesday to U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania (docket 2:23-cv-02476).
Lawyers at Venable said Thursday U.S. Supreme Court justices will likely find it irresistible to use an upcoming case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, to clarify the status of the Chevron doctrine (see 2305050038). The lawyers noted during a webcast that the brief seeking review of the case (docket 22-451) was written by Paul Clement, U.S. solicitor general under George W. Bush, and is salted with citations to decisions by many of the conservative justices inviting a review of Chevron.
Amazon denies claims of negligence and breach of warranty in plaintiff Edna Bowles’ April 26 complaint over allegedly defective Bluetooth earbuds she bought from Amazon (see 2304270062), said Amazon’s answer Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-00317) in U.S. District Court for Middle Louisiana in Baton Rouge. Amazon also denies it bears “any burden of proof as to any” of the allegations, it said.